Dead Parrot On The Senate Floor

OK, so the healthcare bill passed the House on Saturday night. For all the talk of Nancy Pelosi as the woman of the hour, I am pretty sure that the House bill is dead on arrival in the Senate. It's the political equivalent of a dead parrot, and as with that famous Monty Python sketch, attempts to talk the parrot back into life are good only for humor.

As Jim Lucier was the first to point out, the vote on healthcare (220-215), was similar to the vote on cap-and-trade (219-212), and "cap-and-tax" seems to be not only DOA, but dead, period. Another dead parrot.

So if one had to bet, one would bet on "something" getting through, eventually, but nothing much. And in the meantime, the issue of research and cures continues to recede. You don't hear the Republicans talking much about it, either.